299 days! 

Okay.  So this is a bit of a stretch even for me, making posts about the con already.  I mean, I am only dreaming of it once or twice a week right now.

But Vali gave me a wonderful gift last night.  A reason to think about GenCon, and get overly organized about things.  So I will be writing up a bit of a GenCon survivors guide covering all the bits I know from being a VIG to snapping an animatronic dracolich's neck and dropping it into a abyss of void.  I poked at a few of you that have shown interest in the con about what I should address.  I figured I would just open that to the public though.  I might post something tonight, but I doubt it.

Okay.... so I am apparently gonna be writing this over time it would look, rather than taking the time to type it all up and then post.

1. The first thing you need to know about for GenCon registration is getting your badge.  The first thing you will need to do, I believe, is make an account with the Rubi system.  https://registration.gencon.com/login Don't worry too much about buying your badge, you have a few days of safety from the day badges come out, till the first thing you can do as a badge owner.
2. Determine if it is worth the extra cost to making one of the members of your party being a VIG.  VIG is not something I could at all afford for myself, and really don't know if it is worth the extra cost.  Then again, I find being a VIG companion to be extremely lucrative, and totally worth it.  What is a VIG though.... unfortunately there are not any links up to the current (either the 2012 or the 2013) system.  So I'll list the cost and benefit as best I can from memory.
   1. VIG (Very Important Gamer) badge costs $500 this is only for one person.  It gives the benefits of Early Hotel Registration, this alone I have seen some people claim is worth the extra money, I think these people have a poor sense of value.  You also get access to the VIG lounge, get to enter the dealer hall an hour early, special VIG only events, the ability to make friends VIG Companions, and  possibly more.
      1. If you are a VIG you have the ability to reserve two hotel rooms before the general GenCon housing block.  This pretty much gives you choice of hotels with out the desperate scramble that comes with trying to get your hotel room, when the housing block opens.
      2. The VIG lounge is a lounge located not too far from the Dealer hall, in a rather centralized part of the convention.  When you go there there are nice tables and rather comfortable chairs for you can sit and play games with your friends if you have some down time.  There is are free drinks, pop,  coffee, and tea.  There is free WIFI, along with nice people that can help you with many of your GenCon problems.  I have saves a good chunk of money because I have decided I wasn't going to go to even X.  If I wanted to return my event ticket, I would have to wait in a line for a half hour to return my ticket, and honestly, with some of them the even would have started while I was waiting to return the ticket.  You can also buy generic tickets there, and people in general are just friendly.
      3. Early Access to the dealer hall doesn't seem like that big of a perk, but if you know how to use it, it can be wonderful.  This year my buddy was able to go and walk over to Fantasy Flight Games and buy three copies of a board game he wanted.  Bought two for friends.  The game was about $40.  Much to his surprise, the game sold out with in the first few hours of the dealer hall being open, and those board games went up on ebay for a range of $80-$140.  While I don't support being the guy who buys stuff just to profit off of it, you could easily make your VIG money back if you know the games that are hot.  This is also a time to view things and it is just not crowded.  You can find the artist you really want to see, and have some face time with them.  You can stop and look at things and not be bumped and jostled.
      4. Returning to the VIG lounge.  Another aspect of the Lounge I forgot, but think it fits here well.  Lets say if you got a good selection of stuff from the dealer hall, and your hotel room is a fifteen minute walk.  You have an even coming up.  You could lug all your swag to the game your going to, or you can run back to the hotel room.  The VIG lounge has a drop off policy though.  You can leave the stuff there, just have to promise to pick it up by 3PM Sunday.
      5. VIG Only Events.  There seem to be more of these coming up.  The only one I have partook in was the VIG mixer.  It was a get together at one of the nicest steak houses in Indianapolis.  They had a room set aside of us, with free appetizers, steak burgers, and you got two free drink tickets.  The even was not included in the cost of the VIG or VIG Companion badge, it cost me $26, but I had two cocktails that probably cost $60 combine, and the food.  I can't really speak on the other events, but again, they would be a separate cost, and much easier to get into.
      6. I had mentioned the tables to play games with friends in the lounge, the problem is only VIGs get into the lounge right?  No, there is the VIG Companion Badge.  (it ups the cost for a 4 day badge from $62, to $100.  The VIG companion get all the access to things mentioned above, well not the hotel registration, but odds are you would be rooming together.  I know some people make the Companions chip in some extra cash to cushion the blow of the VIG badge, but if your doing that, you should split some of the VIG only benefits.
      7. VIG Swag.  Others have ranked the cash value of the swag you get just for being a VIG at around $200.  I don't know if that is true, but I know that last year you got a $25 shirt, a $10 pint glass, two board games that I don't know the cost of.  A backpack / roller suitcase probably worth $50-$60, a shot glass, a book of special coupons for GenCon or around GenCon, and I am sure more.

1. Picking your hotel.
2. Your hotel is one of the bigger choices of the con.  It is your home base, especially if you don't have the VIG lounge to fall back on.  Mid day showers I find to be an amazing break to the day.  Storing all the stuff.  Swimming pools!  Making time to swim is a huge benefit at GenCon.  Its where you store your booze!
3. I have stayed at the Hilton Garden, The Crowne Plaza, The Indianapolis Marriot Downtown, The Embassy Suites.
   1. Hilton Garden is .6 miles, just shy of a kilometer away.  Room included a fridge, and microwave.  Nice place, but when it is 2am and you have been on your feet for so many hours, that walk is a drag.
   2. The Crowne Plaza I particularly like.  It came with a fridge in the room most years, one time we didn't receive it though, I guess not all the rooms are equal.  Very pretty place.  It is .4 miles, .64 KM.  It is attached to an active train station, two of the years I stayed there, that never bothered me, and I never heard any trains.  The third year, I did feel a bit of a rumble and was aware when a train would pull in to station.  I am measuring the distance from a particular entrance to the Convention Center, but in all honesty, I think that the distance is maybe half of what I listed with some recent construction.  Never managed to use the pool.  They did have two computers that were set out for public use, but were popular.  Also had a good open area for gaming  I think it is technically connected to the IIC now also, but that is a confusing bit of tubes and it is easier to go out side..
   3. The Down Town Marriot is probably the closest hotel to the Convention Center, literally across the street, and connected by a tube so you never need to get fresh air.The closeness is great.  The elevators are slow.  Starbucks, a bar I have never been too, and a sports bar and grill I was not impressed with are connected. Oh, and great pool.  Hot tub didn't try but looked standard.  Biggest complain was they had a fridge, but that was the mini bar.  They even had water bottles on weight sensors on some of the tables so that if you hit it or moved the water, you'd get charged for the bottle.
   4. The Embassy Suites is where I'll probably be staying in 2013.  It is a bit further of a walk.  Google Maps tells me it is .3 Miles, .48 KM.  It felt like much longer, it could have been I didn't get the greatest sleep (I slept on the pull out couch) this year.It is also connected through tunnels, which is just a nice thing if it is a super hot August.  Four of us split a suite, two on the beds, one on air mattress, me on couch.  Was a suite, so there were two rooms, and the bathroom.  Refrigerator and microwave included.  One of the best parts of the place though is the complimentary breakfast.  Every day, included in the price of your room is a breakfast that included omelet bar, french toast or pancakes seemed to appear some times, cereal, yogurt, potato... okay you get the point, a good selection.  My buddy Mike attributes the fact that he got fresh fruit every morning to be the reason he didn't get a cold this year.  They also had free red bulls in the lobby (not a fan but man those things kept me going) and free drinks in the lobby bar between 6-8 every evening.  It had the same slow elevator problem, and there is a lot of open air if your up on a higher level.  So if your afraid of heights just be sure not to look down.  (Pretty easy really.)
   5. More words later.  Nklos sleep now.

Thank you for the info so far - I'd really like to hear what you and others have to say about hotels, too.  If there's only going to be a brief opportunity to get the one you want, I'd like to have a list so that I can be prepared if the first choice isn't available! 

Hey all.  Just a quick update.  As you should be aware of, unless I didn't post dates on previous posts in which case I am sorry, you can now buy your badge for GenCon.

If you hadn't bought your badge already, there are a few things you should be aware of.  One, this years VIG program has sold out.  It actually sold out in a matter of minutes from badge  registration opening.   


The other thing to note is that every hotel in downtown Indianapolis is booked.  Literally.  For a radius of a few miles of the Indiana Convention Center is booked.  So if you don't have your room already you can try and get on the waiting list, but most likely, you will not be able to get a room very close.

"What should I do now Mr. Nklos?"  Well, if you are going to try and book yourself a hotel room on your own, aim for as close to the Indiana airport as you can.  Yeah, planes make noise and stuff, but hotels off the airport will be cheap, and if you play your cards right you can get a shuttle to the convention center from your hotel.

If your hotel doesn't have a shuttle, you have two options.  Drive into the heart of down town, or take a cab.  I would suggest doing the cab, yeah that sounds pricey but I don't know how to explain attempting to park down town in a city.  With out hyperbole.  When I saw how amazed people were at being able to buy booze at the grocery store last summer, or a few other culture shocks I got... I really realize you all might not know what your getting into.  But short version of it is if your driving into downtown you will need to find a parking garage, have to find one that is not full already, I saw them starting to get full as early as 9am.  I have heard legends of some mystery parking garages that are cheap and 24 hours from GenCon vets, but seeing that this is a problem I have not had to deal with, haven't invested much into.  The other problem with garages is you will be paying more than you would for the cab ride, possibly per hour.  Finally, if your garage is not a 24 hour one, which I don't understand why they are not all 24 hours, you might have to have your car out of their by 8PM.  And I mean.... that leaves so much of the day, it just doesn't make sense.

The only thing you will really need to be aware of if your parked out there is what you have on you, assume you will have on you the entire day.  Yes, you will have a friend with the ability to check bags and such and pick them up later, and a hotel room that could possibly be run to if we have some down time, but for the most part assume you will be carrying what you want.  Your gonna scramble to pick up a new board game, cool, your going to be carrying its bag with you.  I know this sounds crazy but I have known some people who have over exerted themselves running around the city with too many board game, and binders for the game they are going to play in six hours, and a light saber, and they don't want to damage the poster they bought, and what ever.  Plan accordingly, which includes having dry food and water on you.

If your going to want to run something, and run it officially, look into that now.  I know they are still doing event submission. This is a great way to diminish the cost of your GenCon, if you can run something your sure people will want to play.  Things like Supernatural (I think there are bout 5 games a year, and I know the guy who runs 3 of them) sell out in the first minutes of event registration.  So aim for the niche things you can run.  Supernatural, Firefly, Star Trek.  Obviously the more

You can get your 4 day badge, and 1/4th your hotel room compensated if you run 200 ticket hours worth of events.  One ticket covers two hours... so you run a five hour game (3 tickets) open it up to six players, and that gives you 30 ticket hours.  So you could run 6.6 six man games and have your stuff covered.... or some other insanity.    I don't advice this, not for your first time at least, but it is how some people I know get to do GenCon every year.  You can also volunteer to work the con itself.  

16-HOUR PAGE (must be age 14 or over)

• One Volunteer T-shirt
• Access to the Volunteer HQ Lounge
• A full refund of your 4-Day badge purchase
• Two (2) Generic Event Tickets

32-HOUR PAGE (must be age 18 or over)

• One Volunteer T-shirt
• Access to the Volunteer HQ Lounge
• A full refund of your 4-Day badge purchase
• Hotel reimbursement (based on 4-person occupancy, see Volunteer Policies for details)
• Four (4) Generic Event Tickets

This really isn't a bad option if you have the time off work to do volunteering Wednesday or earlier, or after Sunday, note I don't know how many openings they have for that, but I do no the guy who is in charge of volunteers.  So I can poke him for you.

I don't like working my vacation, but if it was the only way to GenCon, I'd do it.

I had more to say, like things about hoboconing.... but I am tired now.

The most important thing for you to be aware of, is

I'll be a sad Pointers if no can hug Vali in person...